On this day: April 7

2014: English model, TV host and journalist Peaches Geldof is found dead of a heroin overdose at age 25 in her Wrotham, England, home. She was the second daughter of musician and Live Aid founder Bob Geldof, and the television presenter Paula Yates.

2012: "60 Minutes" journalist Mike Wallace dies at age 93 in New Canaan, Connecticut. He was one of the original correspondents for the show, which debuted in 1968, and retired as a regular full-time correspondent in 2006.

2009: Vermont becomes the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage after the state's Senate and House vote to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto of legislation. The state was the first to introduce civil unions in July 2000, and the first state to introduce same-sex marriage by enacting a statute without being required to do so by a court decision.

2008: Bob Dylan receives an honorary Pulitzer Prize for his "profound impact on popular music and American culture." He was the first rock musician to win the award.

2007: Cartoonist Johnny Hart, the creator of the comic strip "B.C." and co-creator of the strip "The Wizard of Id," dies of a stroke at his drawing board in Nineveh, New York, at the age of 76. At the time of Hart's death, "B.C." was among the longest-running strips still written and drawn by its original creator. The strip continues today, produced by Hart's grandsons Mason Mastroianni and Mick Mastroianni.

1990: Former U.S. National Security Advisor John Poindexter is found guilty of five charges for his part in the Iran-Contra affair. The conviction was later reversed on appeal.

1990: A display of Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs goes on display at Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center. On the same day, the center and its director, Dennis Barrie, were indicted on obscenity charges. The charges resulted in acquittal. The case centered on seven out of 175 photographs, five of which showed men in sadomasochistic poses and two of which showed children with their genitals exposed. The case was believed to be the first criminal trial of an art museum arising from the contents of an exhibition, with much of the dispute centering on whether federal money through the National Endowment for the Arts should be used to finance the exhibit.

1983: During mission STS-6, the maiden flight of the space shuttle Challenger, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk, spending a total of four hours and 17 minutes outside the shuttle.

1978: The Police song "Roxanne" is released.

1976: The comedy "The Bad News Bears," starring Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal, opens in theaters. The movie was a box office hit, earning $42 million off its $9 million budget, and inspired two sequels and a short-lived TV series.

1974: The movie "The Conversation," starring Gene Hackman and directed, written by and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, premieres in New York City. The psychological thriller was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, which it lost to "The Godfather: Part II," another Coppola film.

1970: At the 42nd Academy Awards, John Wayne wins his first and only Oscar for his role in "True Grit." At the ceremony, "Midnight Cowboy" also became the first -- and, so far, the only -- X-rated film to win Best Picture.

1969: Los Angeles Dodgers relief pitcher Bill Singer is credited with the first official save, taking over from Don Drysdale and securing a 3-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field. It was Major League Baseball's first new major statistic since the run batted in was added in 1920.

1964: Actor Russell Crowe, best known for movies such as "L.A. Confidential," "Gladiator," "The Insider" and "A Beautiful Mind," is born in Wellington, New Zealand. Crowe earned an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in "Gladiator" and has also been nominated for "The Insider" and "A Beautiful Mind."

1963: At the age of 23, Jack Nicklaus becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament. His record would stand until 1997, when Tiger Woods, then 21, won the tournament for his first major.

1954: Referring to communism in Indochina, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference, speculating that if one state in the region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect.

1954: Actor, filmmaker and martial artist Jackie Chan is born Chan Kong-sang in Victoria Peak, British Hong Kong. Chan is known for his acrobatic fighting style and innovative stunts, becoming a legend in Hong Kong before making the leap to Hollywood with movies such as the "Rush Hour" film franchise, "Shanghai Noon" and its sequel "Shanghai Knights," and the 2010 remake of "The Karate Kid."

1954: Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Tony Dorsett, who played 12 years in the NFL, all but one with the Dallas Cowboys, is born in Rochester, Pennsylvania. He was the 1977 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and won Super Bowl XII with the Cowboys in 1978. A four-time Pro Bowl selection, he also holds the NFL record for longest run from scrimmage (99 yards) and rushed for 12,739 yards and 77 touchdowns in his career. He played collegiately at the University of Pittsburgh and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1994. During his time at Pitt, he was a three-time All-American and won the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award and the Walter Camp Award during a 1976 senior year that also saw him lead the nation in rushing with 1,948 yards and help his team to a national title.

1950: Actor Walter Huston, best known for movies like "The Virginian," "Dodsworth," "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," dies from an aortic aneurysm two days after his 67th birthday. He was the father of actor and director John Huston and the grandfather of actor Anjelica Huston. Walter Huston was nominated for an Academy Award four times, winning in 1949 for "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," which also earned his son an Oscar for Best Director, making them the first father and son to win at the same ceremony.

1949: Singer-songwriter and guitarist John Oates (right), one half of the rock and soul duo Hall & Oates, is born in New York City.

1948: The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.

1948: The musical "South Pacific" by Rodgers and Hammerstein debuts on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre. Based on James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book "Tales of the South Pacific," it was an immediate hit, running for 1,925 performances and winning 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Libretto. It also became the only musical production to win Tony Awards in all four acting categories. It also produced a original cast album that was the bestselling record of the 1940s and spawned a 1958 film adaptation.

1947: Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 83 in Fair Lane, his Dearborn, Michigan, estate.

1946: Stan Winston, the television and film special effects supervisor and makeup artist, is born in Arlington, Virginia. Winston, best known for his work in the "Terminator" series, the "Jurassic Park" series, "Aliens," the "Predator" series, "Iron Man," "Edward Scissorhands" and "Avatar," won four Academy Awards for his work. He died at age 62 on June 15, 2008, after suffering for seven years from multiple myeloma.

1945: The Japanese battleship Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed, is sunk by American planes 200 miles north of Okinawa while en route to a suicide mission to protect the island in Operation Ten-Go.

1940: Booker T. Washington becomes the first black person to be depicted on a United States postage stamp.

1939: Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, best known for writing and directing "The Godfather" and its two sequels, is born in Detroit, Michigan. The first two "Godfather" movies won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Coppola also won Oscars for both films' screenplays as well as Best Director for "The Godfather: Part II." He was also won an Oscar for the screenplay for 1970's "Patton," and has been nominated for a total of 14 Oscars, including his work "The Conversation" and "Apocalypse Now" and for producing the Best Picture nominee "American Graffiti." His other movies include "Rumble Fish," "The Outsiders," "Peggy Sue Got Married" and "Bram Stoker's Dracula."

1939: David Frost, the journalist best known for his 1977 interviews with former U.S. President Richard Nixon, is born in Tenterden, Kent, England. Frost died of a heart attack at age 74 on Aug. 31, 2013.

1935: Country music singer-songwriter Bobby Bare, best known for the songs "Detroit City," "500 Miles Away From Home" and "Four Strong Winds," is born in Ironton, Ohio.

1933: Actor Wayne Rogers, best known for playing "Trapper" John McIntyre on the sitcom "M*A*S*H," is born in Birmingham, Alabama.

1933: Eight months before the ratification of the 21st Amendment repealing prohibition in the United States, the Cullen–Harrison Act goes into effect, legalizing beer with an alcohol content of 3.2 percent and wine of a similarly low alcohol content.

1928: Actor James Garner, best known for his TV work in "Maverick" and "The Rockford Files" and for movies such as "The Great Escape," "Victor Victoria" and "Murphy's Romance," is born James Scott Bumgarner in Norman, Oklahoma. He died of a heart attack at age 86 on July 19, 2014.

1927: The image and voice of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover are transmitted live from Washington, D.C., to New York City by Herbert E. Ives and Frank Gray of Bell Telephone Laboratories in the first successful long-distance demonstration of television. Television in those days was mechanical. Hoover was scanned by a narrow beam of light passing through tiny holes in a large, spinning disk that was set in front of his face. The image appeared in New York as tiny dots of light on the 2x2.5 inch face of a neon glow lamp. The picture tube hadn't been invented yet.

1922: United States Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall leases Navy petroleum reserves near the Teapot Dome rock formation in Wyoming (pictured here in 2009) and two other locations in California to private oil companies at low rates without competitive bidding. The leases would become the subject of a Senate investigation in what became known as the Teapot Dome scandal, regarded as one of the most sensational scandals in American politics prior to Watergate. Fall was eventually convicted of accepting bribes from the oil companies and was jailed for one year, becoming the first former U.S. cabinet officer sentenced to prison as a result of misconduct in office.

1920: Ravi Shankar, the Indian-American sitar virtuoso who became a hippie musical icon of the 1960s and introduced traditional Indian ragas to Western audiences over a 10-decade career, is born in Varanasi, United Provinces, British Raj. In the 1960s, Shankar took Eastern music mainstream in the West. He lent ethereal, spiritual sounds to the Beatles through his friendship with George Harrison, who recorded them on the "Sgt. Pepper's" album in the song "Within You Without You." Virtuoso performances at Monterey in 1967 and Woodstock in 1969 helped cement Shankar's place in Western musical history as an ambassador of Eastern wisdom to a generation looking for new values. He died at age 92 on Dec. 11, 2012.

1915: Jazz singer and actress Billie Holiday is born Eleanora Fagan in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Some of her best known songs include "God Bless the Child," "Don't Explain," "Fine and Mellow" and "Lady Sings the Blues." She died at age 44 on July 17, 1959, from pulmonary edema and heart failure caused by cirrhosis of the liver.

1906: Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples, Italy, killing more than 100 people. With funds diverted to reconstruct Naples, the eruption also forced the move of the 1908 Summer Olympics from Italy to London. The volcano, which is best known for the A.D. 79 eruption that destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last 100 years.

1897: Walter Winchell, the famous newspaper and radio gossip commentator, is born in New York City. Winchell's column was syndicated in more than 2,000 newspapers worldwide, and he was read by 50 million people a day from the 1920s until the early 1960s. His Sunday-night radio broadcast was heard by another 20 million people from 1930 to the late 1950s. He died of prostate cancer at the age of 74 on Feb. 20, 1972.

1891: P. T. Barnum, the showman, entertainer and businessman remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the circus that became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, dies at age 80 in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

1873: Baseball Hall of Fame manager John McGraw is born in Truxton, New York. In 31 years as manager of the New York Giants, he led the team to 10 National League pennants and three World Series titles. His total of 2,763 victories as a manager ranks him second overall behind only Connie Mack, but he still holds the National League record with 2,669 wins. As a player, he played 16 seasons in the majors, mostly for the Baltimore Orioles of the National League. He also played for the St. Louis Cardinals, the American League Baltimore Orioles and the New York Giants, and was credited with helping to develop the hit-and-run, the squeeze play and other strategic moves. He died of uremic poisoning at age 60 on Feb. 25, 1934.

1862: The Battle of Shiloh ends, with the Union Army under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeating the Confederates near Shiloh, Tennessee. The Confederates were forced to retreat from the bloodiest battle in United States history up to that time, ending their hopes that they could block the Union advance into northern Mississippi.

1860: Will Keith Kellogg, the businessman who founded the Kellogg Company, is born in Battle Creek, Michigan. With the help of his brother John, Will Kellogg promoted cereals, especially corn flakes, as a healthy breakfast food and the company continues today to produce a wide variety of popular breakfast cereals. Will Kellogg died of heart failure at age 91 on Oct. 6, 1951.

1859: Walter Camp, one of the most accomplished persons in the early history of football, is born in New Britain, Connecticut. Known as the "Father of American Football," he invented the sport's line of scrimmage and the system of downs and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951. He played collegiately at Yale College and later served as a head coach at both Yale and Stanford University, compiling a coaching record of 79-5-3. His Yale teams of 1888, 1891, and 1892 have been recognized as national champions.

1788: Pioneers arrive at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, establishing the first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory, opening the westward expansion of the new country. They named the settlement Marietta in honor of Marie Antoinette, who had aided the colonies in their battle for independence from Great Britain.

1770: William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romantic school of poetry, is born in Cockermouth, Kingdom of Great Britain. Britain's poet laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850, he published the poetry collection "Lyrical Ballads" with Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1798 to help launch the Romantic movement. His best work is generally considered to be "The Prelude," a posthumously published semiautobiographical poem of his early years that he revised and expanded a number of times over his life.

1141: Empress Matilda becomes the first female ruler of England, adopting the title "Lady of the English."

Comments

The views expressed are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the Terms Of Service and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms.